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User talk:Specialk16
Talk Archive 1/2/12-3/11/12 Hi! (continued) (For ThunderShadow and Specialk16's conversation) Sounds good to me. Go to 3:00 for sleep. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugguciB9w1U This time you won't 00:33, March 12, 2012 (UTC) Probably. Also, do I need to edit in the right section? Not sure if I ned to put it in Hi, or if I can just click leave message. This time you won't 01:56, March 12, 2012 (UTC) Ok, no prob. Have you ever heard of NationStates? This time you won't 21:04, March 12, 2012 (UTC) Sorry, I had to go home fast. :P http://www.nationstates.net/nation=prostino is my nation. You basically create a "nation" and choose issues, e.g In recent weeks, there has been growing concern over the quality of automobiles made in Prostino. Representatives from all sides have gathered in your office and are asking you to make a decision. The Debate #"This is ridiculous!" cries Margaret King, chairperson of the Association of Scorned Shoppers, while frantically waving a stack of papers. "Some of these stories are just obscene! We've got water pumps ceasing at 12,000 kilometers, airbags not deploying in accidents, and this one guy's gas tank just fell off! I can't make this stuff up! Our auto industry has gotten lazy and corrupt and is in desperate need of stronger regulation!" #"I've never heard such nonsense!" scoffs Chastity Jamieson, an executive representing Prostino's largest automaker. "Our cars are perfectly fine! These allegations are completely baseless. Thing is, these proposed regulations are going to make us uncompetitive. Is this what you want? Foreign cars clogging our streets while our factories close down? Get rid of some of the regulations we have now, so we can do our jobs! While you're at it, a government subsidy would safeguard domestic auto manufacturing ..." #"What is this? Subsidies? Deregulation? Lies, all of it!" shouts prominent communist Kathleen Laine, sporting a practical yet stylish red beret. "These companies, they're always willing to sell their ethics for a quick Armoriar! They always cut corners for a little extra profit, and look where it's gotten us! You want to make good cars, cars the people can be proud of? Have the people take control of the car companies! If we remove the profit motive, Prostino can finally produce quality vehicles, without wasteful bourgeois stuff like chrome wheels, air conditioning, and reclining seats!" #A wheelchair-bound man wearing a bicycle helmet on his head, plaster casts on his legs, and an irate expression on his face rolls himself into your office. "Hey, I got somethin' to say," he growls as he deliberately bumps into your desk. "You and your government have been playing nice with the car companies for far too long, and a lot of us cyclists are sick of it. I might have an axe to grind, but Prostino and our environment'll be better off if you just banned cars entirely. Who cares if people complain? They'll adjust." Then you choose one, and your economy, civil rights or political freedoms will go up, down, or stay the same. It is also a cool way to meet new people and be the everloved ruler of a utopia, or the cruel dictator of 3 billion, wanted dead by 2,999,999,999. (that is supposed to be 2 billion, 999 thousand and 999.) This time you won't 21:36, March 12, 2012 (UTC) Yep, it is awesome. This time you won't 03:51, March 13, 2012 (UTC) Yep! And try to go for the best economy/civil rights/political freedoms. This time you won't 21:22, March 13, 2012 (UTC) Cool. Now... a lot of people will tell you to join their region. LOOK FOR THE REJECTED REALMS. They are literally the best region in NS, and ignore the Nazis, (they post everywhere) and look for The Empire of Prostino. That's me. :D Also, can you send me a link? It ain't on google. :/ This time you won't 23:34, March 13, 2012 (UTC) They basically post stuff like this. ACHTUNG! HEIL! I vill slap you vizh My leather glove for lying about Us by calling Us „fake“, The Star Empire of Spartan Termopylae! Humor ist a personality trait of decadent degenerates and ist zherefore verboten in the Greater German Reich! Zhat ist true, The Flagship of NHSS Liberator. Zhere vill only be a malicious smile on Our faces vhen Ve experience Schadenfreude from torturing Our inferiors. SS-Untersturmführerin Stoßtrupp Adolf Hitler The Greater German Reich This time you won't 23:39, March 13, 2012 (UTC) Well, you can chat with other people on the Regional Message Board, click on the green sign that says The Rejected Realms, and scroll all the way to the bottom. And you might want to read this. http://www.nationstates.net/page=faq This time you won't 00:09, March 14, 2012 (UTC) Eh, I'm pretty good. Going to Chapters (The Canadian version of Barnes and Noble) to get a book for spring break. This time you won't 20:34, March 17, 2012 (UTC) Mostly fiction/dystopian, stuff like that. I am reading the Gone series by Micheal Grant. It's basically about a town where all of a sudden everyone over the age of 14 dissapears, and there is a giant dome over the town. Then people develop powers and a strange creature lurks in the hills... If Steven King wrote Lord of the Flies, it would be something like that. It has horror, adventure, and other awesome stuff. Guaranteed to make you look over your shoulder if you read it at 3 in the morning. :D This time you won't 00:03, March 18, 2012 (UTC) Nice. What series is it? May the stars watch 01:27, March 18, 2012 (UTC) Oh yeah! I've heard of those! Are they good? May the stars watch 02:22, March 18, 2012 (UTC) Sounds great. Also, not sure if I have asked you this, but there is a girl I want to ask out. I hate movie theaters (I'll telegram the reason to you on NS), so I need another idea that is relatively cheap, that still has something to do. Thoughts? May the stars watch 04:45, March 18, 2012 (UTC) That sounds pretty fun. Around here we have... the world's 3 largest indoor mall? (West Edmonton Mall) But... the snow started melting... so no ice skating. May the stars watch 15:21, March 18, 2012 (UTC) Grades (continued) (For Gilderien and Specialk16's conversation) What A-levels are taking? (you're junior, right?)--Gilderien Talk| 18:49, March 12, 2012 (UTC) Oh, I should have realised. In the UK, we take GCSE's aged 14-16, and A-levels 16-18, which is the two years before uni. One normally takes ~10 GCSEs, which are narrowed down to ~4 A-levels.--Gilderien Talk| 20:05, March 12, 2012 (UTC) Er, no. AP? From Wikipedia, I dont think so, but i did take Latin GCSE in my spare time, im not sure if that counts.--Gilderien Talk| 21:11, March 12, 2012 (UTC) Well GCSEs are a qualification you get after studying a subject such as maths or German for two years, involving coursework and modular and final exams . They are graded from A* (highest) to G (or U), and pretty much everybody takes them, as they (and the next level up) are completely free, paid for by the government.--Gilderien Talk| 20:35, March 15, 2012 (UTC) Yep, totally free. If you do really badly, you can retake some exams, and that normally cost around £9.50 for a GCSE exam ($15) but the school might even pay for a retake.--Gilderien Talk| 20:52, March 16, 2012 (UTC) 999 edits, nice.--Gilderien Talk| 10:55, March 31, 2012 (UTC) Hello, Specialk16. Hello, it is nice to meet you and nice of you to drop by my talk page. Drop by my talk page anytime and I look forword to working with you in the future. Cool Cool. I actually got back like 10 minutes ago....:/ How are you? May the stars watch 01:05, April 9, 2012 (UTC) Coolio. And nice job on 1000 edits! May the stars watch 13:23, April 9, 2012 (UTC) Nah, not really. You should though. :P May the stars watch 19:37, April 9, 2012 (UTC) Books I saw you mentioned on your talk page that you were going to list books that you thought of as an interesting read. Are you still thinking of doing this? It's just that in SF, the era of New Space Opera ushered in by Gardner Dozois is collapsing in a distinctly unpleasant fashion, filled with arguments, assertions of the superiority of subgenre X over subgenre Y, a wide variety of tasteless and offensive remarks and some criticisms of A Song of Ice and Fire that have to be seen to be believed, albeit inspired by the television adaptation, which I despise. But anyway, the cutting edge of modern SF isn't a place I particularly want to be at the moment. I'm reading reprints of old Planet Stories publications, which I'm enjoying, Wurts and Feist's Empire Trilogy (quite good fun) and some Arthur C. Clarke (hideously dated but I'm an ultra-completist). I'm thinking of reading Lois Bujold's stories of Miles Vorkosigan and I'll give almost any fantasy series a look. Exceptions follow: The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, for simply existing in its current form and The Wheel of Time for going nowhere at a glacial pace. Anyway, I'll probably be having a look at Feist, Williams and Salvatore. The eighth Dark Tower book is coming out soon (24th of April). Inform the unenlightened masses and let me know if there's anything you would recommend.--Wyvern Rex. 18:28, April 12, 2012 (UTC) :By contrast, my English teacher seemed to be a quite a fan, since we had to study Brave New World, Animal Farm, Nineteen Eighty-Four, Farenheit 451, The Martian Chronicles, Player Piano and The Handmaid's Tale in the same year. Well, Melville is very probably the defining voice in American literature (though personally I prefer Heller's Catch-22) so I wish you luck but as a long-term collector of and expert on the SF genre, if you require any guides or starting points in any subgenre, you need only ask. I can help with Alternate history, Apocalyptic/Post-apocalyptic, Comedy, Dystopias/Utopias/Ambigous Utopias, Feminist SF, Hard SF, Military SF, Planetary Romance/Science Fantasy, Punk SF, Soft SF, Space Opera, Space Westerns, Superhumans and Time Travel.--Wyvern Rex. 09:15, April 13, 2012 (UTC) ::You could, for Lovecraft, start with At the Mountains of Madness and Other Novels as it contains all of the stories commonly held to be his finest. Really though, there isn't a bad place to start with Lovecraft. In terms of Space Westerns, I have three words on the subject: Gateway, Gateway and Gateway. Fred Pohl defined the genre in his famous tale of the inscrutable Heechee and the human prospectors trying to understand them, so it is the essential book in this genre. C. L. Moore and Leigh Brackett shaped the genre in its early years with heroes such as Northwest Smith and Stark of Mars, while the modern exemplar of the tradition is Mike Resnick. There are three kinds of space opera: the Golden Age of Galactic Empires and flashing sabers, the grimy, world-weary Revisionist era with low life and high tech and the New Space Opera, an uneasy fusion of the two where every aspect is turned up to eleven. Each have their own strengths and weaknesses, so where would you like to begin?--Wyvern Rex. 17:54, April 13, 2012 (UTC) :::OK, here we go! :::*''The Legion of Space'' by Jack Williamson: let's start at the beginning. Originally, this was a cut-price version of the then-popular Lensman, though Lensman is a little overwrought by modern standards. Williamson was always a confident author, never less than competent and always capable of telling a good story. :::*''Foundation'' by Isaac Asimov: The quintessential space opera of its time, a story of a fight against barbarism by a handful of brave scientists, discovering that even knowledge of the future may not be enough to save the galaxy. :::*''The Future History'' by Robert A. Heinlein: The type specimen after which all others were measured, Heinlein's rigorous and logical approach to the future was frequently disorienting in its scope and imagination. :::*''The Paradox Men'' by Charles L. Harness: A swashbuckling opera of space and time, with swordfighting outlaws in a non-stop adventure. Widely regarded as one of the finest SF novels of its time. :::*''Tiger! Tiger!'' by Alfred Bester: Possibly the best space adventure ever written, with a superweapon, an ambigous hero and a shady gang of government agents in a breathtaking chase through the solar system. :::*''Emphyrio'' by Jack Vance: A baroque tale set on a planet exploited for its technologically-minded workers, with a young hero who sets out to change the world and a wonderfully extravagant prose style. :::*''The Mixed Men'' by A. E. van Vogt: A highly readable and engaging introduction to one of the most complex authors in space opera's history. Van Vogt, like Harness, always guaranteed a new idea or plot development every 800 words and, unlike in some of his later works, he doesn't disappoint.--Wyvern Rex. 19:50, April 13, 2012 (UTC) ::::OK, just remember that The Paradox Men has been published as Flight into Yesterday and Tiger! Tiger! has been reprinted as The Stars My Destination. Bookshop staff are paid not to know this.--Wyvern Rex. 08:11, April 14, 2012 (UTC) :::::Don't read Prelude first! Go with original trilogy, then the two sequels Foundation's Edge and Foundation and Earth, then Prelude and Forward the Foundation. You can then either read Asimov's Robot books or his Empire trilogy to see how the story began, followed by the authorised Second Foundation trilogy (by Benford, Bear and Brin) and the tribute anthology Foundation's Friends. Alternately, read Donald M. Kingsbury's Psychohistorical Crisis for an updated, unauthorised and very irreverent take on the Seldon Plan.--Wyvern Rex. 15:18, April 14, 2012 (UTC) ::::::The definitive edition only contains the title story, an introduction and Lovecraft's essay Supernatural Horror in Literature. Instead, see if you can find the collections by Penguin Classics named The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories, The Thing on the Doorstep and Other Weird Stories and The Dreams in the Witch House and Other Weird Stories. They were released quite a while ago but proved very popular, getting through a large number of reprints and indeed are still in print today. They seem to contain all of Lovecraft's major works in horror and fantasy, though of course each volume only contains three or four of his very best. They should be easily available and affordable.--Wyvern Rex. 08:24, April 15, 2012 (UTC) :::::::Long days and pleasent nights, wanderer. Just remember the roads of fantasy are narrow, long and winding and it's easy for the unwary to stray off them. Should you feel this happening, consider me a cartographer. Anyway, while there are still Pratchett fans in the world, there will still be a couple of candles burning in the dark for humanity. Out of interest, which Lovecraft book did you get?--Wyvern Rex. 16:01, April 15, 2012 (UTC) ::::::::It's a good collection, prevented from being great solely by the absence of The Festival, the first of Lovecraft's Arkham stories and the only Cthulhu Mythos story not included therin. It would have been a coup for Gollancz if they had included it but it was later published in the companion volume Eldritch Tales. Still, virtually everything else you might want is in there, though I believe that they should have done one collection for his horror fiction and another for his fantasy tales.--Wyvern Rex. 08:36, April 16, 2012 (UTC) :::::::::Try looking out for some Robert E. Howard while you're there. Howard and Lovecraft wrote in around the same time period and often used each other's concepts.--Wyvern Rex. 15:18, April 16, 2012 (UTC) ::::::::::How are things going? I've just ordered my copy of the new Dark Tower book!--Wyvern Rex. 17:59, April 24, 2012 (UTC) :::::::::::Well, the SF scene is still violently tearing itself apart and my insistence that Embassytown, while good, wasn't as good as The Recollection isn't helping matters. Anyway, I have on another tab an open letter signed by Geoff Ryman, Ken MacLeod, Justina Robson, Alastair Reynolds and Paul McAuley calling for more science in SF, something I sort-of support. The debate about this is heated already and I intend to take it to the edge of destruction and beyond, in the hope that a superior SF world emerges from the ashes. Still, when I escape into the past I find quite a few neglected classics, a few of which I polish up every now and again and put on Rex Libris. I was particularly happy to discover Leigh Brackett and you can read my review of her on my Fantasy review page, at the bottom under the heading of "The Eric John Stark Saga".--Wyvern Rex. 08:44, April 25, 2012 (UTC) ::::::::::::The SF community is stultifying and, as far as I can tell, rotting from the inside as it dies of complacency. It's not the first time this has happened. The community has tried to preserve a vision of itself that hasn't been accurate in at least two decades and has been deeply misleading since the advent of the internet. As such, I have only ever been on the very fringe of the SF world, where people possess crazy egalitarian ideas about all subgenres being created equal. My advice is read the books, enjoy them but don't waste your time on the debates (literary, religious, scientific and political) and the backstabbing. Then again, some communities, particularly certain fantasy fan groups, positively exude a friendly and welcoming air with reasoned, intelligent and open-minded discussion of a wide variety of issues, not dissimilar to that found in the better class of churches. Discworld in particular would be very good as a religion (at the very least, Terry looks like a prophet). I hope you like Leigh Brackett. She was a Californian and I'm told there's definitely something of the state in her novels. It's quite a nostalgia trip for long-term fans who are encountering her for the first time, because you have always heard that voice long before you actually read it, even if you can't remember where...--Wyvern Rex. 12:43, April 26, 2012 (UTC) :::::::::::::There are still things worth fighting for. Discworld Monthly, the semi-official series newsletter is one of them. Other aspects of the online SF world I enjoy include Paul McAuley's infrequently updated but frequently thought-provoking Unlikely Worlds, The Way the Future Blogs by Fred Pohl, a funny but often poignant blog from an author who has lived through almost all of Genre SF's long history and (best for new readers) John Scalzi's Whatever, a refreshingly friendly and informal blog from one of the most important people in modern American SF which features discussion, reviews and competitions on a regular basis.--Wyvern Rex. 08:18, April 27, 2012 (UTC) ::::::::::::::The waters of SF run fast and wide, and though even the deepest waters can be forded by those brave enough, it's the shallow rapids, endlessly reflecting back, that catch and enrapture the unwary. I've just finished The Wind Through the Keyhole. I doubt you'll be disappointed. That is all.--Wyvern Rex. 15:04, April 27, 2012 (UTC) Well, there's a few old friends in the form of the Roland's ka-tet, his former fellow gunslinger Jamie DeCurry in a flashback sequence and a brief appearance by Steven Deschain, as well as two other characters who, for now, shall remain nameless, save to say that one we have met previously and the other we've heard about but never seen before. There's a lot of Mid-World we haven't seen before and there is much yet to be explored. The book consists of three nesting stories, starting with Roland and Co taking shelter from a starkblast, continuing with the story of how Roland and Jamie (after the events of the flashback sequence in Wizard and Glass) were sent west after the "Skin-man" and the central story is The Wind Through the Keyhole, a tale his mother used to tell him from The Great Book of Eld. After the conclusion of this tale, we hear the rest of Roland and Jamie's story before rejoining the old gang to learn one last thing about Roland that he didn't quite reveal in the second story. It is, arguably, like a less confusing and more emotionally direct version of Cloud Atlas and I doubt that anyone with a lesser talent for characterisation than King (in other words, the rest of the world's population) could have pulled it off.--Wyvern Rex. 12:37, April 28, 2012 (UTC) :It was originally more like that and the middle section, the folk tale, wasn't going to be included at all. I suppose King realised that there's only so much mileage in a story where the audience know the beginning and the ending. Still, he manages some pitch-black foreshadowing. If you haven't already, you may also be interesting in reading The Stand (Flagg's first appearance), Salem's Lot (Callahan's first appearance), Everything's Eventual (a collection featuring a novella, "The Little Sisters of Eluria", about Roland's early wanderings and "Everything's Eventual", Earnshaw's first appearance.), The Eyes of the Dragon (an outright swords and sorcery novel, starring Flagg) and Hearts in Atlantis (the life and times of Ted Brautigan and those whose lives he touched).--Wyvern Rex. 16:50, April 28, 2012 (UTC) ::In Salem's Lot, Callahan is the Catholic priest of the eponymous town, though he isn't without his problems. He was an alcoholic and increasingly distanced from his faith (there's a particularly wonderful moment where he declares that he wants to go out and directly fight evil, rather than just preaching about new definitions of sin). But then, Kurt Barlow and his assistant Straker turn up, and he joins with local resident Matt Burke, Dr. Cody, visiting writer Ben Mears (who is in a doomed love affair with a local girl named Susan, for the Tower is of many levels, do ya see it well?) and young Mark Petrie to fight back against the pestilence brought by Barlow. Callahan's most famous single scene was partially reproduced in Wolves of the Calla as he faces down Barlow so that Mark Petrie has time to flee. Barlow, however, preys on Callahan's insecurities and forces him to drink tainted vampire blood when his faith finally fails him. He survives but can not re-enter his old church, and from there you already know his story. ::Going back to The Wind Through the Keyhole primarily makes the foreshadowing more obvious. Jake rescuing Oy from the starkblast is one of the most poignant moments while the ferryman who helps Roland and the gang mentions Andy the Messenger Robot (Many Other Functions). However, the transition feels easy because King seems to be writing in a style halfway between the slightly-overwrought one used for the first four and the darker tone of the last three. Certainly, setting most of the action in the past rather than in the future helped and having the drama being primarily psychological rather than physical was a welcome touch.--Wyvern Rex. 12:59, April 29, 2012 (UTC) :::Don't get me wrong, at least ten named characters are killed during the course of the book. But, as I said, it's all in the mind. What else have you been reading? I've got some classic SF from Walter M. Miller, Cordwainer Smith and Philip K. Dick coming up. Anyway, while I was reading Terry Brooks and Tad Williams I noticed a couple of things which may be relevant to the discussion of the Inheritance Cycle. Do you think I should mention them in the articles?--Wyvern Rex. 17:21, April 29, 2012 (UTC) ::::The House of the Seven Gables eh? Lovecraft called it New England's greatest contribution to supernatural literature, so you might want to take a look at this...--Wyvern Rex. 11:28, April 30, 2012 (UTC) :::::Here's the rest. That list is by no means complete, as the two "Silver Key" stories that go between "The Statement of Randolph Carter" and "The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath" are missing, along with "Pickman's Model" and "The Music of Eric Zann" but it should be a decent start. Everything explicitly set in the Cthulhu Mythos (but not the Dream Cycle) is on here. For the remainder of Lovecraft's public domain fiction, including the four stories mentioned above, see his author page. Further Lovecraftian literature by C. L. Moore and Robert E. Howard is also available.--Wyvern Rex. 11:39, May 1, 2012 (UTC) ::::::Clarkesworld have just summed up SF's present existential crisis better than I ever could. Please read the heartbreaking yet optimistic and user-friendly guide. (a few famous names in the comments too!)--Wyvern Rex. 12:25, May 3, 2012 (UTC) :::::::Make sure you have The Left Hand of Darkness with you. That one is so good that even notorious SF-hater Harold Bloom said it was one of the finest works of western literature. Anyway, here's a prime example for you: this year's BSFA Clarke Awards. First on the shortlist were three books that had no chance; Hull Zero Three, The End Specialist and The Waters Rising. They either didn't adequately fit the criteria (namely Hard SF inspired by Arthur C. Clarke) or, in the case of Hull Zero Three, weren't in the British tradition that the Clarke awards tradtionally reward. Unsurprisingly, none of them won it. So, we have three contenders in the final round: :::::::#''Embassytown'', the most directly "smart" of the shortlisted novels. At least, until you realise that the alien language central to the plot makes no scientific sense, around which point things fall apart in a haze of unremitting bleakness. (It didn't help that I read Embassytown directly after Babel-17, which did everything Embassytown did bigger and better.) Most people in the SF world didn't seem to notice and it was the only one on the list to be nominated for the prestigious Hugo. John Scalzi in particular liked this one a lot. :::::::#''The Testament of Jessie Lamb'' was the most literary, having been nominated for the Man Booker prize. Former Clarke-award winner (and 2012 BSFA Award Winner) Chris Priest was rather vocal in his support for this book and his dislike of the other five, though he was critical of certain aspects of the style. However, it isn't really Hard SF (at least, not in the same way as something like The Child Garden) and covers a lot of bleak, well-trodden moorland. :::::::#''Rule 34'' is a frequently outrageous comedy-drama set in a very realistic near future. There's a lot of darkness but it's always tempered with the surreal and absurd. Critic Adam Roberts thought that it was, on its own terms, the most successful novel on the shortlist while 2011 winner Lauren Beukes was also a fan. Although the literary style isn't as polished as the other two mentioned, a favorable mention by famous cyberpunk William Gibson the week before the vote drew some attention. :::::::OK then, you are the Clarke award judge. Which novel do you give the award to? (no Googling the result) Anyway, I've just got a Feist novel, Robert Charles Wilson's Hugo-award winning Spin and Elizabeth Moon's Nebula-winnning Speed of Dark. Feel free to ask any questions you like.--Wyvern Rex. 11:36, May 4, 2012 (UTC) ::::::::Stop press! Making Light discusses grimdark in SF and tells the genre what it should be doing to its face.--Wyvern Rex. 14:40, May 4, 2012 (UTC) :::::::::And the 2012 Clarke Award goes to...The Testament of Jessie Lamb! Yes, the judges caved in completely against the polemic from the normally sedate and level-headed Chris Priest (who described Rule 34 as "amusing" and seemingly regarded this as being a strong insult rather than a reason for buying it). Remember, innovation in current SF won't get you anywhere, unless it's a particularly inventive way of torturing your main characters. The Testament of Jessie Lamb reminds me of a comment I saw on another SF blog; where the writer said she was reading a collection of stories. All of them were very well written but so unremittingly bleak that she didn't know if she would reach the end. Everyone, and I mean everyone, said that in reverse order the shortlist should run The End Specialist, The Waters Rising, Hull Zero Three, Embassytown, The Testament of Jessie Lamb and Rule 34. Here's another myth dispelled: that reviews mean anything in award success. Heavyweights such as Al Reynolds, Charles Stross (author of Rule 34) and Dan Simmons were behind Hull Zero Three but that didn't get anywhere. Now, the major awards are yet to come. There's the Hugo, for which Embassytown is nominated, along with George R. R. Martin's grim and gritty fantasy A Dance With Dragons, Corey's optimistic space opera Leviathan Wakes, Mira Grant's zombie apocalypse story Deadline (the outsider, by all accounts) and Jo Walton's Among Others which I haven't read but hear is very good. Also, the Nebula, which features Embassytown, Among Others, three which seem outsider bets and an optimistic space opera by McDevitt. My prediction is A Dance With Dragons for the Hugo and Embassytown for the Nebula. We'll see if I'm right. (And now, some optimism.)--Wyvern Rex. 08:53, May 5, 2012 (UTC) ::::::::::EDIT: Among Others won the Nebula and I rather believe that it was the only one on the shortlist that really deserved it. Anyway, the alternate history anthology review is coming up this week.--Wyvern Rex. 17:27, May 20, 2012 (UTC) RE: Block I would block this user but it seems m'learned colleague Weas-El has already done so. Thanks.--Wyvern Rex. 11:47, May 9, 2012 (UTC) I just saw this, and was on the block page before realising that he was already blocked. Unfortunately, Inheriwiki is now blocked at my school, so I was not able to respond for several hours.--Gilderien Talk| 18:18, May 9, 2012 (UTC) Reviews I thought you might be interested to know that I have two new reviews up on my anthology site. Anthologies are generally very useful for picking up on new authors and, quite frequently, new styles and subgenres. I will also take into account what readers would like to see more of in terms of reviews, so if you would like me to go into more detail on anything then please say. How is the Lovecraft progressing?--Wyvern Rex. 11:43, May 12, 2012 (UTC) :I have read Melville but it was a regrettably long time ago and I'm afraid that while I've read Poe and Chambers, I never quite got round to Hawthorne. There's still quite a gap on my bookshelves between Dickens finishing and Conan Doyle beginning, as my main interests in fiction are 20th century literature and mythology, so I have The Travells of Sir Iohn Mandeville, a Knight of Inglund (or so the slipshod scribe puts it), The Catcher in the Rye, Morte D'Arthur, To Kill a Mockingbird and A Little Gest of Robin Hode in the same area. Then again, I don't see how the critics could have got through Norman Mailer or Ayn Rand without laughing or why so few people these days have read Heart of Darkness. :One thing I enjoyed about Lovecraft is the verisimilitude of his settings, for they are settings, not mere backdrops. You wonder idly whether you might have read Atlantis and the Lost Lemuria, or the pamphlet Of Evill Sorceries done in New-England of Daemons in no Humane Shape. One of these is real. With regards Lovecraft and gore, I believe S. T. Joshi once wrote an essay on the matter where he discussed how blood was mentioned only a handful of times metaphorically in Lovecraft's fiction (fewer still literally, mostly in At the Mountains of Madness) while slime, ichor and the darker geometries of Einstein's relativity feature much more frequently. It's quite fascinating to read something this misanthrophic, this indifferent to human life. :There's a poll at the bottom of the anthology review page where you can select the next kind of anthology you would like to see reviewed. Similarly, you can have input on who gets lifted out of REX LIBRIS purgatory. It has been my aim to collect all extant examples of Widescreen Baroque Hard SF Space Opera and I particularly enjoyed Corey's Leviathan Wakes. There will be five novellas in the series released over the next year and I will try to track down and review as many as possible. Strange that even as space opera is in decline, interplanetary adventures set in our solar system such as this, The Quiet War and Saturn's Children are on the rise. In the 50's, when grand scale Asimov and Hamilton was coming up hard against theoretical physics and losing, Bester's The Stars My Destination, Clement's Mission of Gravity and Harness's The Paradox Men filled the gap with adventures entirely set in one solar system. Still, there's a poignant moment from Poul Anderson's later work that I will never forget: our hero, Dom Flandry is looking at an Imperial coin which bears a slightly-marked picture of the galaxy and Flandry tells us that the tiny scratch, if scaled up, would be a hundred times bigger than the galactic empire he serves. The Emperor in Anderson's novels ruled a hundred thousand stars at the peak of his powers. There are two hundred billion stars in our galaxy, four hundred billion if you count satellite galaxies, halo objects and insignificant red dwarfs that are nonetheless affected by solar gravity. A million "Terran empires" wouldn't be truly galactic. All the "galactic empires" there ever were in SF would hardly fill our own spiral arm. Maybe we just can't think big enough.--Wyvern Rex. 10:32, May 13, 2012 (UTC) ::If the settings are of interest in the construction of horror fiction, then read this. And also look at these. The first author, Stross (he of Rule 34) takes a very unconventional approach to Lovecraftian fiction as he tends to alternate between comedy and darkness. The second, Miéville, roots much of his horror in London, a location he knows so intimately its presence quite often superseeds his actual characters. Even when the story isn't set there, you can still feel it. Mike Harrison had this idea of an archetypal, inevitable, city, who's very name and nature shifts with time but is eternally present. Anyway, may I be able to interest you in [http://weirdfictionreview.com/ Weird Fiction Review, the New Yorker of eldritch horrors?] Or, alternately, this anthology? The way I'' see it, the latter of the two is probably the pefect gift for a special occasion ''if you are a Weird Fiction fan. Hawthorne's birthday is July 4. Combine your celebrations, pathetic mortal, and accept the power of Nyarlathotep! Oh, and I'll look into the alternate history anthology. If we're particularly lucky, not all of the stories will be Lincoln survived, Confederacy won or Hitler won.--Wyvern Rex. 13:50, May 15, 2012 (UTC) :::Four new anthology reviews! First is the all-original Solaris Steampunk anthology Extraordinary Engines, including several modern classics of the genre, then the mostly reprints The Mammoth Book of SF Wars, including Fredric Brown's famous "Arena". The Mammoth Book of Alternate History is next, including reprints of Fritz Leiber's Hugo and Nebula winner "Catch that Zeppelin!" and Keith Roberts "Weinachtsabend". Coming soon is a review of the all-original SF adventures in The Starry Rift. How are things going for you? Have you had a look at any of the Stross?--Wyvern Rex. 11:10, May 24, 2012 (UTC) ::::There's no better education in creating characters than reading Dickens. You wonder though, how many hundreds must he have invented over his career? How do you keep it up and, more importantly, get more complex. It might be worth noting that Dickens was the Stephen King of his day: a massive popular fanbase but the critics scarcely regarded him as an author, let alone a noteworthy one. Writing about complex issues in terms such that the masses can understand? What nonsense is this? Anyway, after the John Meaney MC Debacle and the Christopher Priest Screed Fracas, I've ventured out into the internet to see what the present situation is. Here's my (rather long) report: :::*There's been an existential crisis of confidence. That's the one line summary. The problem is, with uncertainty remaining over everything from the Higgs Boson to the Moonbase, it's no longer possible to write SF set in the mid-term future. Case in point: I read the new book on the origin of the universe by Victor J. Stenger not long ago, put it down, went on a science news website and read about a new discovery which comprehensively demolished his arguments. So, 50-250 years in the future is out unless you, like Al Reynolds or KSR, are very perceptive indeed. :::*However, SF suffers very badly from a specific kind of cultural ammnesia, in that it believes that science as it exists today is fundamentally right on a basic level and that all we need to do is fine-tune things a little. A couple of seconds with an actual scientist might disabuse a few people of that notion. (If you want a tip, I can see Dark matter becoming the new Ultraviolet catastrophe: the problem of its existence is solvable and entirely logical, in a "why didn't I think of that?" way, but our limited perspective on the universe prevents almost everyone from seeing it.) As such, far future SF is also out because no one can anticipate the changes. :::*You might think it's the perfect time for near-future SF but reading about recessions, spy planes, hackers and civil wars? You can watch the news for all that. Likewise, if we are in an accelerando situation, and you never know, then it's all irrelevant anyway. :::*It seems then, that fantasy is "where it's at". I don't mind that as much as I thought I would. It looks like Weird fiction is doing particularly well, though I can't remember the last time I saw this much Swords & Sorcery on the shelves. Even noted space opera and hard SF editor Dave Hartwell is releasing an anthology of it. I will say, that while a lot of what's out there isn't to my personal taste, I think that Joe Abercrombie, Daniel Abraham, Lauren Beukes and China Miéville in particular have done a sterling job of translating the modern world into entertaining fiction. :::*There's still hope for SF though. While it isn't always accurate, increasingly I've seen writers trying to second-guess the future. The point of SF to me was less about the science involved and more about depicting how science is done and what the end result means. I've noticed that more authors are trying to balance the old space opera spirit of adventure and exploration with the intellectual rigor of new space opera, though so far this is still more or less a start-up industry. Alternate histories give writers such as Ken MacLeod the ability to talk about the present by examining what might have been while steampunk, in spite of the overwhelming amount of junk out there, has at its high points handled social injustice themes very well while steering clear of the rather more oppresive dystopian mode. :::*It seems then, that the genre is still in a reasonably healthy state, though I rather doubt that many of the old guard see it that way. Suffice to say, there will always be a Brave New World out there, it's just that this time round it's our own.--Wyvern Rex. 12:14, May 29, 2012 (UTC) ::::Really quite long. Sorry. Swords and Sorcery... was a troubled genre historically. I hate to have to introduce politics but for many years swords and sorcery was the go-to genre for the political Far Right. The notion of the orphan warrior, disadvantaged by the weak liberal government of his backwater kingdom and their attempts to appease what to him is ultimate evil goes out and murders as many of his enemies as possible, climbing to the throne atop a pillar of blood and bone, creating a functionally autocratic state without even the slightest representation for the average citizen in the name of forging a better world. Compare with Aragorn, whose valor comes not just from his martial ability but from his wisdom and sense of justice. The problems with S & S go back to Howard, though there they were lessened by Conan's rough-and-ready sense of honor. Another way of looking at it: from the swords and sorcery perspctive, I've heard some of the die-hard fans argue that John Farson was the true hero at the Battle of Gilead because he was trying to overthrow what he perceived to be a corrupted, weakened system, which in S & S was always the Right Thing To Do At The Time. However, in more recent years, people like George Martin, Dan Abraham, Joe Abercrombie and the rest have taken a more nuanced approach, one where the hero isn't always right and the average person gets some genuine representation for once. If we extend our scope to fantasy in general, we can plot the most successful periods thussly: ::::*1919-1936: The Age of Depression. After the brutality of the First World War, Victorian techno-optimism grinds to a halt and, for the first time, people start to realise that the future isn't necessarily brighter. Lovecraft starts writing, Howard is active along with Eddison and several others, looking back to a past that was never really there, a time of supposedly pure nobility. ::::*1936-1951: The Age of Connection. Improvements in communications technology make it easier for fans to link up at events later called "conventions". The New Deal starts to kick in and as the American recovery takes place, high-tech becomes more affordable. Asimov, Heinlein and Van Vogt are quick to capitalise on all this with high-concept SF. ::::*1951-1963: The Age of Ending. As the USSR acquires nuclear weapons, the devastation of Hiroshima is brought back to a world slowly backing away from colonialism. Tolkien, Poul Anderson and a very young Moorcock find that the only way to cope is to re-examine those myths of a "heroic age". The Broken Sword by Anderson is probably the most successful, with its hero manipulated to a tragic fate by amoral gods, elves and demons. ::::*1963-1976: The Age of Change. Social change sweeps the world, most notably with the American civil rights movement. As the West moves toward greater social equality we have Delany and Le Guin talking about futures where things went right and Ballard and Ellison warning us about where we might go wrong in the so-called "New Wave". ::::*1976-1985: The Age of Escape. The New Wave grow disllusioned with the lack of real change in many areas, so wonderfully summarised by the (non-SF) To Kill a Mockingbird. The Silmarillion grips the world, followed by Shanarra, Riftwar and many other new epics. The Gunslinger is also released. Epic is in, while in the background Heinlein, Anderson and Niven are drawing up plans for superweapons. ::::*1985-2007: The Age of Silicon. Cyberpunks and techno-libertarians create the modern internet while the new space opera authors forge an alloy of grit and glamour in some of SF's finest novels. ::::*2007-?: The Age of Collapse. High-tech and low-regulation does not a healthy stock market make. Internet culture is everywhere but people have a harder time connecting with anything meaningful, though it's questionable how many of them bothered to look for it. As faith is lost in technology, along with the acceptance that we can no longer live without it, it is arguable that the world is again in an Age of Ending. Newer, sharper fantasy authors combine the allure of the past with a very modern sensibility, Weird fiction authors upgrade Lovecraft to fuse his weirdness with that of the modern world and steampunk fantasies satirise social injustice. Even the new "comfort reading", Urban Fantasy, is generally quite decent. Fantasy, it seems, will remain until after the financial crisis concludes and, quite possibly, fantasy fans are in for the long haul. ::::Look at the divergence point though: 1919. The point at which General Relativity was formulated, the first branch of physics science without any real-world analogue. I'm reasonably well-informed when it comes to science and it seems to me that each time we get closer to the cold equations at the heart, science loses a bit of its public popularity. That's the real tragedy for me. You can keep art and music and the rest of it, all commercial and angry and empty. The scientific world is one of the last redoubts of pure beauty, whether it's a finely-balanced forest ecosystem or the stark glaciers of a Martian icecap or the abstract Feynmann diagrams that form the foundations of the world. Anyway, I have always admired "Archdruid" Dave Brower's work, though I'm afraid I haven't heard of Jeannette Walls. Ah well, time passes at a different rate in the Land of Faery...--Wyvern Rex. 09:27, June 18, 2012 (UTC) :::::Wyvern's Law: Science-fiction and Fantasy are not about the past or the future. Corollary to Wyvern's Law: Good Science-fiction and Fantasy novels realise this. Anyway, I'm going to be continuing my futile crusade to restore the British Hard Space guys to the prominence they deserve, one author at a time, but you can also look forward to some anthology reviews. I have both volumes of The Best of Jim Baen's Universe, a compilation of Military SF, Hard SF, Space Opera and Swords & Sorcery. It too is mostly from a fairly-right wing perspective, but more on a softer-line Libertarian slant than a "let's subjugate everyone" slant. Also from Jim Baen, I'm reviewing Going Interstellar, a collection of short stories and scientific articles on travel beyond the solar system, because I can at least dream that humanity will sort out its problems long enough for this to really happen. Finally, The Mammoth Book of Extreme Fantasy, another volume of the continuing and surprisingly good anthology series. And yes, I feel the same way about reading. When's it's patently obvious that I'm just too optimistic about humanity, I read the Huffington Post. After that, I read several light comedies, preferably by Lord Dunsany, and I am suitably well adjusted again.--Wyvern Rex. 08:38, June 19, 2012 (UTC) ::::::You've got it. You see: ::::::*''Nineteen Eighty-four'' was about 1948, when Nazism was defeated but the English Socialists (so bitterly satirized as the doctrine of Ingsoc) were capable of being just as extreme and support for fascism and nationalism was again starting to rise. Orwell, the disaffected socialist, was appalled at how those who claimed to follow the same political ideals as he did loudly declaimed that humanity was nothing more or less than something else for a central government to manage. ::::::*''The Left Hand of Darkness'' (1970) was Ursula Le Guin's take on the feminist revolution. Certainly, she argues, women weren't truly "free" at the time she was writing and there is still much work to be done but Le Guin always had an undercurrent of concern regarding other feminists who were pushing for women to have greater rights than men (particularly with regards the Draft). Her solution was to have her Hainish space travellers discover a fundamentally peaceful, egalitarian world where gender was optional. ::::::*''The Forever War'' (1976) was about the Vietnam War, another interminable conflict where ordinary people did savage, bestial things as they drifted further and further away from those they left behind. People had written anti-war SF novels before, but the establishment could pass them off as weak-willed bleeding-hearts liberals. Haldeman was a Vietnam veteran whose wounds kept him from fulfilling a dream of becoming a physicist. If you haven't seen Born on the Fourth of July or labor under the impression that the Vietnam war was somehow a good thing, this is essential. ::::::*''Neuromancer'' (1984) visited a world "fifteen minutes" in the future, where technology, particularly the Internet, has changed the world so much and so rapidly that the boundaries between real and unreal are increasingly mutable. It's in conversation with Orwell throughout, as where Orwell saw absolute state control as a coming problem, Neuromancer found the opposite: a world of endless anarchy, where corporations scrabbled for any market they could reach. ::::::*''Nova Swing'' (2006) was M. John Harrison's exuberant space opera, post-Berlin Wall, post-9/11, post-Iraq, post-everything by the end. There's no galactic empire or dashing swordsmen in this space opera, just you and him. Yes, you're lost in an endlessly bifurcating quantum reality. On a universal scale, you are a probabilistic waveform across the range of membranes. Now, since we all are, is it really that bad? ::::::So that's what SF is. Harrison has said in the past that he finds SFnal attempts to predict the future dull, "the clomping foot of nerdism" as he calls it, because all they reveal are the author's set of personal prejudices. Quite right.--Wyvern Rex. 08:32, June 20, 2012 (UTC) :::::::Well, I hope you enjoy it. TLSOE is essential reading for Tower Junkies, though I'm afraid I've never been fond of Card's style when writing SF. Still, he acquitted himself admirably here, so who I am to complain? Le Guin I revere because she was one of the first people to take SF seriously enough to make it truly brilliant. There were a lot of writers before her who were content to write about starships and sorcerors but Le Guin's were stories of her life and others, the high-tech, wizardry and wild romance being aids to revealing character. What's more, she did this in a style both elegant and precise, yet clear enough for the average teenager to pick it up off a shelf and start asking awkward questions. She created a world which Banks, Wolfe and the other fine authors who followed her could inhabit, and to hell with the ivory towers!--Wyvern Rex. 08:56, June 21, 2012 (UTC) ::::::::As Gilderien pointed out, the best starting point is A Wizard of Earthsea. However, you can buy this either by itself or in an omnibus with the other two in the original trilogy. My edition includes all of the first four books but it didn't see a particularly widespread release. "Dragonfly" is set after the fourth book and should be read before the fifth but it stands alone pretty well and can also be read as part of Tales from Earthsea. Additionally, a couple of background stories to the first book are found in The Wind's Twelve Quarters but, though entertaining, they aren't essential. Try out Dragonfly, then original trilogy and proceed from there.--Wyvern Rex. 11:00, June 22, 2012 (UTC) :::::::::The lengthy and moderately agonising review of The Best of Jim Baen's Universe is now over but unfortunately I don't get a respite from the libertarians, since I have Going Interstellar to review. Still, spaceflight is the one area where I agree with the libertarian party, so it shouldn't be too bad. Anyway, did you vote for Federations? If so, excellent choice.--Wyvern Rex. 08:55, June 23, 2012 (UTC) ::::::::::Star Wars is old space opera. It's great fun, but that's about it. New Space Opera is a slightly more acquired taste as its Lovecraftian bleakness and empty, cold galactic voids put off the old school fans, who insist on happy endings, while newer fans are more likely to be interested in the internet or steampunk or a myriad other trends. Not me though. For me, nothing compares to enigmatic alien artefacts, faster-than-light travel, first contact, interstellar civilizations, starry rifts, mile-long starships, a universe accelerating towards an uncertain future, sardonic artificial intelligences, magisterial grandeur, high drama and high romance, whether at decadent imperial courts, beneath dying wine-green suns or in the stark neon emptiness of a spaceport bar at closing time. Yes, people would argue it's all in false colour, but so is this, and it's no less beautiful and inspiring for it.--Wyvern Rex. 17:40, June 23, 2012 (UTC) :::::::::::Glad to hear that space opera still inspires people. It's been harder to get the message through in recent years. (If they ever want a four-minute man to tour the country advertising places on a generation starship/space ark, I'd do that as well.) What is there this week? Well, Bujold, Feist and Philip K. Dick, the regulars, Federations, and, most exciting of all, the NEW Terry Pratchett (and Stephen Baxter) novel! Yes, it's The Long Earth, where our heroes can step onto parallel versions of our world in a manner not dissimilar to the Dark Tower. (unsurprising, since they were both inspired by Ring Around the Sun)--Wyvern Rex. 08:48, June 24, 2012 (UTC) Space Opera The next step after Old Space Opera is Revisionist Space Opera, written during the time when the subgenre was unfashionable, so these are space opera's "cult hits". *''Nova'' by Samuel R. Delany: Perhaps the best-loved standalone novel in the subgenre, Delany proved that space opera didn't have to be flawed but brilliant and could just skip to the brilliant part. This is a top-notch allegorical literary novel that just happens to be a great space adventure as well. *''The Centauri Device'' by M. John Harrison: Harrison was rather more pessimistic than Delany and didn't think that space opera could ever escape its pulp past, so he wrote this book in an attempt to end the subgenre. All he managed to do was give it new life, since this is among the most extreme and inventive revisionist novels. *''Her Smoke Rose Up Forever'' by Alice Bradley Sheldon: The story of how Sheldon tricked the SF world is quite remarkable in itself but her short stories would go on to redefine the entire SF world. They are vast in scale, sometimes very funny but always concerned with some very deep themes. *''Schismatrix Plus'' by Bruce Sterling: One novel. Five short stories. Together, they gave the SF world a hard reboot and showed us all how space opera could be grand in scale and still realistic. *''Gateway'' by Frederik Pohl: Pohl's exuberant and frequently comic space western polished up one of the most sneered-at subgenres of space opera and derived from it insights into the human condition. *''To Outlive Eternity and Other Stories'' by Poul Anderson: A collection from one of space opera's most consistent and most prolific authors, including Tau Zero, a famous tale of a starship drive accident that causes the ship to accelerate forever and After Doomsday, a tragic tale of the last humans trying to discover who is responsible for the destruction of Earth. *''Norstrilia'' by Cordwainer Smith: On the distant world of Norstrilia, the planet which exports the life-extending drug stroon, farmhand Rod McBan has decided to buy Old Earth... Smith's stories are pure lunacy but because of this, they have survived rather better than a lot of the more "serious" SF books out there. A collection of this and other relevant material is We the Underpeople.--Wyvern Rex. 08:58, June 25, 2012 (UTC) :Excellent choice. Also, please note that if you can't find Schismatrix Plus, Schismatrix was also released by itself and the five related short stories may also be found in Crystal Express. The one volume edition is still the best though.--Wyvern Rex. 07:36, June 26, 2012 (UTC) :OK, let me know how get on and I will adjust my list of New Space Opera authors accordingly. Just out of interest, what is available in your local bookshops? I used to hear California had the best selection in the world, perhaps sharpened by Heinlein, Brin, Niven and several other authors living there. Have things really got that bad?--Wyvern Rex. 15:45, June 26, 2012 (UTC) ::Shopping carts? Such decadence! Over here it's a bargain bin and the musty old stock on the outside table. I had forgotten abouts Borders closing. Still, one shelf? The very smallest bookshop over here has three at least and in a personal favorite of mine, they have their own large five-shelf corner overlooking the coffee shop, whose intoxicating odour has elicited more than one purchase. The staff also leave comments in the front about what they thought of the books in question. We'll never see this again when its gone, I'm afraid.--Wyvern Rex. 19:40, June 26, 2012 (UTC) :::Mountains? Oh yes, we have mountains. Now, to get there, try to dodge the Wordsworth enthusiasts who want to extoll the manifold virtues of the landscape, before ducking through the National Trust shops and tearooms. Now, try to get past the Historic English Heritage Property without being stopped at knifepoint for a "voluntary" donation to upkeep. Do not, under any circumstances, visit the steam rally. Then past the church and guest houses and international music festivals and the homes of various minor celebrities and you will find Everest Mountain Climbing, who should outfit you suitably for little more than ten thousand pounds. I'm afraid the mountains aren't in peak condition this time of year, if you'll pardon the pun, and from here, they do look rather more like tors or millstone grit outcrops but let me assure you, when you get there you will encounter gradients of up to five per cent. Yes, Hay-On-Wye and the British Library are in the other direction. Bye then!--Wyvern Rex. 08:34, June 27, 2012 (UTC) ::::Here's the problem: you go into a shop and ask for a rucksack. You then discover that said rucksack, already at an eye-watering price, is not waterproof. You add on waterproofing, and the price doubles. Then, you discover that no straps are sold with it. And so on. That's what it's like, everything is sold substandard and you have to pay hideous prices to get useable equipment. I've seen tent pegs sold separately. Then there are hiking guides, training courses, safety courses, joining a club, volumes of Wordsworth and everything else you need to circumnavigate a small hill. The agony is that these hiking guides frequently cover a very small area in excessive detail, so you need to buy more (and they tend to be high-priced as it is), and then people will tell you that due to severe northwesterly sou'easters (or something like that), none of your equipment is suitable for this, slightly different small hill.--Wyvern Rex. 17:02, June 27, 2012 (UTC) :::::Er, no. You might be interested to know that M. John Harrison is also an avid rock climber, having written the acclaimed literary novel Climbers on the topic and ghostwritten the so-called autobiography Fawcett on Rock.--Wyvern Rex. 21:17, June 27, 2012 (UTC) ::::::Harrison wrote The Centauri Device, so you should be able to get a feel for his works there. I rather admire his works, in spite of their ever-present darkness, because he is one of a select few SF authors to have broken out of the genre and become regarded as a perfectly serious author of any kind of fiction he turns his hand to. Not only that, he did it without trying to distance himself from SF the way Vonnegut and Ballard did, so he can write magical realism, extreme deconstructionist fantasy, mainstream literature and exuberant space opera, sometimes concurrently, and this is all perfectly normal to his fans. He never lost his love of the "Sense of Wonder" and still enjoys reading Baxter, Reynolds and the rest of them. It's not often people achieve that synthesis (Banks, Le Guin and a couple of others spring to mind at this point) and people who try deliberately ("cough" Bacigalupi and Miéville "cough") will never get there.--Wyvern Rex. 11:01, June 28, 2012 (UTC) :::::::Great, meanwhile, here's Harrison on what SF can do when it puts its mind to it. Would you be in favor of Inheriwiki joining the Wikia Book Club initiative?--Wyvern Rex. 08:09, June 29, 2012 (UTC) ::::::::Self-promotion.--Wyvern Rex. 17:32, June 29, 2012 (UTC) :::::::::How are you doing with the space opera? I've prepared your set of New Space Opera (post-1985) recommendations but which ones you receive depends on what you've enjoyed.--Wyvern Rex. 19:46, July 4, 2012 (UTC) ::::::::::Well, I doubt I'll get any more done on the review until Monday but I've already been derogatory about the works of four people held to be SF pioneers. I've also received the latest addition to my collection, another Philip K. Dick novel, because I have more by Terry Brooks on my list than the most important author of the twentieth century and, as such, clearly have my priorities badly wrong. Anyway, out of interest, which Asimov are you on?--Wyvern Rex. (talk) 10:47, July 7, 2012 (UTC) Gareth L. Powell After all this time on the fringe, my editing has attracted some notice from a Higher Power... One who has Transcended from Purgatory...--Wyvern Rex. (talk) 09:24, July 8, 2012 (UTC) ::Let's see, The Recollection made it to the US but Silversands only got there as an Anarchy Press ebook, though it does include the short story "Memory Dust" as a bonus. I don't think you got The Last Reef at all but my article includes links to "Sunsets and Hamburgers", "The Redoubt", "Pod Dreams of Tuckertown", "Six Light off Green Star" and "Distant Galaxies Colliding". However, for high-tech and low-life, you have to read this collection.--Wyvern Rex. (talk) 17:25, July 8, 2012 (UTC) :::Scratch that, I've found and linked to two-thirds of The Last Reef on the article.--Wyvern Rex. (talk) 19:43, July 8, 2012 (UTC) ::::Wait, I've got online links to fifteen of his stories here.--Wyvern Rex. (talk) 20:08, July 8, 2012 (UTC) :::::Well, good luck with finding them. By the way, I forgot to give you the SF fan's guide to speaking about books with non-genre fans. It's my compilation of several years experience and while it shouldn't be taken as surefire, it should prevent a few awkward moments with guardians of the literary citadel. In order of acceptability: :::::#Crossover authors: It's always safe to discuss SF authors admired by the literary world. In Britain, Orwell, Huxley and Ballard have defined modern intellectual thought while Bradbury and Le Guin are already appearing on newer lists of the Great American Novelists, with Silverberg not too far behind. Also, M. John Harrison, Iain Banks, Samuel R. Delany and several others are safe as they have also written acclaimed literary novels. A decent test is to see if the novel is over seventy-five years old, so Wells and Lovecraft are also likely to be taken as part of the canon and even Robert E. Howard is making his way there. :::::#Literary Genre authors: You are part of this category if you develop your characters at least as much as you develop your gadgets. In recent years, Philip K. Dick and Kurt Vonnegut have migrated to this category and they are still on their way up. Stephen King is also a good example. The writing isn't necessarily better in this category than in categories below (both Dick and Vonnegut had some notable off-days) but the stories are told convincingly, with enough energy and with enough emotion to carry them through. This is also home to numerous authors who never quite wrote the sort of stories needed to gain a wider acceptance, like Cordwainer Smith, Gene Wolfe, KSR, the Cyberpunks and Terry Pratchett, who are perfectly good writers but include features such as space travel, dying earths and the internet (and giant turtles) which are still new enough to cause problems for certain readers. :::::#Historical Genre authors: People from the pulp era, like Tolkien, Clarke, Asimov and Heinlein who were never really part of the literary world but are more or less alongside it these days. Importantly, their work must be predominantly Golden Age (less than seventy-five years old) Around 2000, it was clear that Foundation had been around for fifty years and it wasn't going to go away any time soon, so we might as well label it a "classic of its type" until further notice. :::::#Genre Literary authors: Authors better known for their mainstream work who try their hand in the SF genre on up to three occasions (if there's demand for a fourth, they get promoted to category one). There are two types, people like Michael Chabon who read SF and hence come up with original ideas and people like Margaret Atwood, who don't. Generally, this is quite a tricky category. Jeanette Winterson fans generally prefer the realistic Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit to the fantastical The Stone Gods, so it might be safer to avoid this branch. :::::#Genre authors: Quite a difficult category. Quite a few people, like Al Reynolds, and Vernor Vinge are moving from here towards being Literary Genre authors as they diversify and expand their skills over time. Also home to lesser known pulp authors like Simak, Piper and Anvil, those who never had the fame of the Historical Genre authors or mostly wrote short stories. Tends to be idea-driven but the main problem in discussing them is that most people won't have heard of them. Safer to avoid really.--Wyvern Rex. (talk) 14:46, July 9, 2012 (UTC) ::::::Ah, this happens quite often. Before starting a book, I frequently don't know how long it will take me and there is no "average length". For example, old Ace Doubles, at 100 pages each, I can generally finish faster than a vintage 200 page novel, an hour for each rather than two and a half hours. However, a light fantasy by Terry Brooks, at 350 pages, gets finished faster than half an Ace Double written by Philip K. Dick, at two hours as opposed to two and a half. Gene Wolfe's novel "The Fifth Head of Cerberus" is 210 pages but has a very unreliable narrator, so that took me a whole day. Generally, my ability to read while doing something completely unrelated helps, so I can typically get through without missing anything while programming spreadsheets and other such tasks. For example, my anthology reviews are generally typed while I'm reading the next story. There are outliers, particularly Schismatrix Plus which has about 350 pages and took me four days, not counting the period of recovery afterwards.--Wyvern Rex. (talk) 08:36, July 10, 2012 (UTC) :::::::Reading as a passenger on long car journeys is usually good if you're capable of doing it without being sick. I read Wolves of the Calla on one. So, what finds are out there?--Wyvern Rex. (talk) 18:22, July 11, 2012 (UTC) ::::::::Correction: two long car rides. There's a lot of good ecological SF out there as well: the desert world of the first Dune novel, the alien forerunner planet of Grass, anything by Kim Stanley Robinson...--Wyvern Rex. (talk) 08:52, July 12, 2012 (UTC) :::::::::Yes, there's a lot of great SF out there. It sometimes intimidates. Even the Doctor Who novels are good these days: Moorcock has written a very irreverent one, Baxter's is coming out, Douglas Adams' Shada is finally getting one and Al Reynolds is doing one next year. Not bad for a program I've never watched... But then again, I never was fond of media SF. This, however, I found interesting (may it do ya fine).--Wyvern Rex. (talk) 19:15, July 12, 2012 (UTC) ::::::::::The Star Wars universe has its benefits. Where else would you find Vonda McIntyre, Greg Bear, Walter Jon Williams and Kristine Kathryn Rusch writing in the same universe? Doctor Who is slightly more coherent, though it must be said that as a series it doesn't bother with continuity most of the time. It's hard to see how King could take himself out, though he always regarded the Dark Tower as a "first draft". I've rummaged through the back catalogue and found Leigh Brackett's barnstorming return to the Eric John Stark Saga twenty years after her last story there. Thirty is pushing it.--Wyvern Rex. (talk) 20:50, July 12, 2012 (UTC) :::::::::::My review of Federations is finally live! Next up is Life on Mars, though I'm not making any promises about when.--Wyvern Rex. (talk) 15:23, July 13, 2012 (UTC) ::::::::::::OK, I've also selected four more quotes for the section.--Wyvern Rex. (talk) 18:16, July 13, 2012 (UTC) :::::::::::::The Martin/Guthridge story is quite short, about six pages of slightly-smaller-than-average print. Again, it's next to Wright, Lee and Reynolds, which I thought of as a poor editorial decision as it makes four pretty heavy stories next to each other. Adams should have moved Foster up a bit, possibly to where Reynolds is. I'm afraid Tolbert has only written twelve stories (his day job is working for Adams at Lightspeed) so I can't help you there but I still haven't forgiven John C. Wright for producing (or perhaps exuding) the execrable Count to a Trillion and as such, instead recommend Poul Anderson's rather superior "The Saturn Game". Also coming up, I finally add Christoper Anvil's Federation of Humanity sequence to the REX LIBRIS shelves, along with Poul Anderson's sci-fantasy The Boat of a Million Years, Raymond E. Feist's fantasy Rise of a Merchant Prince, Mike Resnick's space western Santiago, the aforementioned Life on Mars and a secret bonus review!--Wyvern Rex. (talk) 08:59, July 14, 2012 (UTC) ::::::::::::::I've been off editing other wikis and keeping up with various news feeds from Paolini at Comic-Con, where he was on a panel with Raymond E. Feist, Patrick Rothfuss and Brandon Sanderson, among many others. They were all rather entertaining but I have to say that Sanderson's tales of creating private wikis and Googling himself to remind himself of plot points brought the house down on more than one occasion. It was almost as good as the first 45 seconds of Chris Priest's acceptance speech for this year's BSFA award. Terry Brooks wasn't at the panel but Rothfuss's conversation with him was proved very insightful, since it isn't often that two fantasy authors of this calibre are drawn into open conversation. Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 are up in different places, I'll post the fourth when I get it.--Wyvern Rex. (talk) 18:39, July 16, 2012 (UTC) :::::::::::::::My secret review of the Brian Aldiss anthology Space Odysseys is now up! Fans of the Dead Space Opera sketch preceding my review of Space Opera should like the SF Bookshop sketch seen here...--Wyvern Rex. (talk) 11:12, July 20, 2012 (UTC) ::::::::::::::::Here's Part 4 of the Brooks and Rothfuss interview. Coming up this week are two more Aldiss anthology reviews, the latest novels from David Brin and M. John Harrison and some vintage stuff from Robert Sheckley, H. Beam Piper and Poul Anderson.--Wyvern Rex. (talk) 10:19, July 22, 2012 (UTC) :::::::::::::::::Exciting news: Palencar has produced a Shruikan portrait in the style of the other four Inheritance covers for the deluxe edition.--Wyvern Rex. (talk) 15:51, September 25, 2012 (UTC) Poll You have a poll to vote in! I went for Salinger, Pratchett, Herbert, Le Guin, Bradbury, Keyes, Pullman, Adams, Paolini and Tolkien. In other news, Evil Earths has been reviewed, Farewell, Fantastic Venus!, Perilous Planets and Armored are upcoming.--Wyvern Rex. (talk) 17:19, July 30, 2012 (UTC) :OK, I hope you enjoyed it. That landscape does turn up rather a lot in SF, particularly in KSR and, to a lesser extent, early Larry Niven. Anyway, my new review of Armored (John Joseph Adams et al, Baen , 2012) is up. I rather enjoyed it, for a change, and it will go some way towards writing off the seething rage I still feel towards Baen for having published Watch on the Rhine, a military SF novel so generally abhorrent that it set back my SF reading by a good year. Anyway, some slightly worrying SF news in that recently released statistics identify only 79 (non-sharecropped) SF novels and collections were published last year, compared with 159 in 2010. With this kind of decline, it's getting harder to find the new talent, though it's also noteworthy that fantasy was up to 129. Brin's Existence was very good (though it's not going to happen!) and Harrison is, as always, quite beyond description, rather perfect if you happen to revere the certain subset of stark Absurdist prose that he has mastered. Coming up, I look at one of the most contraversial stories of the 1950's, Tom Godwin's "The Cold Equations", and ask whether it is still required reading for SF fans. So, what have you been reading?--Wyvern Rex. (talk) 18:49, August 9, 2012 (UTC) ::I've had a distinct degree of bibliographic luck. After some years of searching, for it never achieved widespread release over here, I have finally obtained a copy of Hartwell & Cramer's leviathan among anthologies, The Space Opera Renaissance. Finally, I can review one of the greatest anthologies ever compiled of the genre, with 32 short stories covering over 70 years. So, after all my searching, have I found a good space opera anthology? Well...--Wyvern Rex. (talk) 08:59, August 14, 2012 (UTC) :::Have a look at this! Obviously, I'm canvassing for your vote, for "The High Paladins".--Wyvern Rex. (talk) 15:11, September 14, 2012 (UTC) ::::The style's a bit different, isn't it?--Wyvern Rex. (talk) 08:06, September 15, 2012 (UTC) :::::King's use of the eye motif is interesting because it is the exact opposite of Lovecraft. Lovecraft confronts the readers with the purely alien, while King tries to ground it in reality. (after all, humans are very visual in their perception) I am wary of revealing too much pertaining the team I have entered but one Lovecraft character and two King characters feature.--Wyvern Rex. (talk) 17:33, September 15, 2012 (UTC) ::::::Actually, you have to have nine. Same as the original Fellowship.--Wyvern Rex. (talk) 18:14, September 15, 2012 (UTC) :::::::Alright then. I suppose that we will find out on the 22nd.--Wyvern Rex. (talk) 10:22, September 16, 2012 (UTC) ::::::::It's started! What's your team name? I'm up for voting now under the name of "The High Paladins".--Wyvern Rex. (talk) 08:18, September 22, 2012 (UTC) :::::::::OK then, I'll vote for you. Currently reading: Downward to the Earth by Robert Silverberg. On pre-order, Inheritance deluxe edition, The Hydrogen Sonata by Iain M. Banks, A Blink of the Screen: The Collected Short Fiction of Terry Pratchett, First Command: The John Grimes Saga Volume II by A. Bertram Chandler, Judgement of Tears: Anno Dracula 1959 by Kim Newman and The Fractal Prince by Hannu Rajaniemi. In short, as eclectic as ever.--Wyvern Rex. (talk) 09:35, September 24, 2012 (UTC) :::::::::::Oh yes, I've read Wizard's First Rule. I read it the same week as Magician. I thought it was a decent fantasy adventure but not as good as Feist. I didn't care enough for it to read the other books in the sequence for another few months (Ten? Eleven?) which proved to be among the worst fantasy novels I have had the misfortune to lay eyes on. Grinding hackwork prose, screaming Objectivist politics and the sense that you should be paying more attention, since this is all terribly important. I couldn't make it past volume 5 and I got rid of them as fast as I could. I thought no more about the matter until an associate had a particularly unedifying experience with the man at a signing, at which point I developed an intense dislike of Goodkind, further amplified by certain well-publicised Twitter comments. Rather more rewarding in my view was Tad Williams' The Dragonbone Chair and its sequels, the closest thing to a true classic since A Wizard of Earthsea.--Wyvern Rex. (talk) 08:36, September 25, 2012 (UTC) :::::::::::PS: Forgot to mention Downward to the Earth, one of the best SF books ever written. It works better if you've read Heart of Darkness, another favorite of mine but is pretty extraordinary whichever way you look at it. Unfortunately for Silverberg, he wrote several very good books that year and when it came to awards, the one which was nominated over this by a very slight margin was the inferior Up the Line, which promptly lost the Hugo to The Left Hand of Darkness. Again, there's worse books to lose to but I can't help thinking Downward to the Earth deserved that award.--Wyvern Rex. (talk) 08:46, September 25, 2012 (UTC) ::::::::::::Your team is up! I've voted for you but were you aware that your team has five "Designated Hitters"?--Wyvern Rex. (talk) 08:22, September 26, 2012 (UTC) :::::::::::::No, not a 13-book sequence, 14 books and counting of bleak, self-centered cynicism. I see where critics of modern fantasy are coming from though. A lot of it these days isn't fantasy in the sense I'm used to. A Song of Ice and Fire is basically a long realist novel about the multiple evils of international power politics, as depicted by some questionable stereotypes. It's fun, in its limited way. Brooks and Feist are basically adventure writers without a non-fantastical adventure market to work in, who turned to fantasy not out of choice but out of necessity. They have a certain kind of charm (environmental themes in the former, eyeball kicks and realistic settings in the latter) but not always that approachable. Stephen R. Donaldson I've never read (the books seemed a bit perverted from the couple of chapters I could stomach) and I haven't read Robert Jordan either, for the reasons explained in a sequence of increasingly harried and demented reviews by the superlative Adam Roberts. (links here, they are worth reading) :::::::::::::So you see, this is why I read SF more these days, not just because actual fantasy (Pullman and Pratchett being the juggernauts on this side of the Atlantic) is so rare but because SF readers have a lower tolerance for this sort of thing. If, say, Al Reynolds' innovative Widescreen Baroque (use that term as preferential to space opera should snobbish types be present) slips a little or gets self-indulgent, as it did with Terminal World, fans more or less tell him that this clearly isn't his area and send him off to work on something better, namely the sheer brilliance of the 11K trilogy, which may yet prove to be Britain's finest future history. Sadly, they don't do this in America, so poor old Larry Niven's publishers are getting him to hack out another series of Known Space books at least 30 years after he ran out of ideas. You do get overlong series still but you are perenially in fear of the great John Clute noticing and saying so. (No one has ever recovered from a devastating Clute review.) Are you ready for some New Space Opera recommendations yet?--Wyvern Rex. (talk) 09:49, September 28, 2012 (UTC) Hey Hey, SpecialK! I never knew you liked Inheritance!HenryJh 98 (Magic) 00:54, September 16, 2012 (UTC) Specialk16 • Talk 03:37, September 16, 2012 (UTC) :Yeah, my wikia experience started on the Hunger Games one.HenryJh 98 (Magic) 12:42, September 16, 2012 (UTC) ::My Avatar experience is pretty awesome. Had a mad editing spree earlier today. Sweet! How's your Avatar experience? But what team are you talking about? Is there some sort of Varden brewingxD? For some reason this is small. HenryJh 98 (Magic) 23:43, September 16, 2012 (UTC) :::Oh, that. I am confused about what that is.HenryJh 98 (Magic) 00:02, September 17, 2012 (UTC) ::::Just fixing the font size. It needed an extra on the end.--Wyvern Rex. (talk) 14:57, September 17, 2012 (UTC) :::::Okay Thanks. SpecialK, I'll see yours once you are finished, cuz it's still a tad confusing to me.HenryJh 98 (Magic) 20:55, September 17, 2012 (UTC) ::::::Can I join your team before the deadline?HenryJh 98 (Magic) 00:26, September 18, 2012 (UTC) :Where do I do this? HenryJh 98 (Magic) 00:58, September 18, 2012 (UTC) Round 5 I'm in fifth-round voting tommorow. Can I rely on your support?--Wyvern Rex. (talk) 17:04, October 5, 2012 (UTC) Deluxe edition The deluxe edition, featuring a new epilogue, is out now.--Wyvern Rex. (talk) 09:01, November 17, 2012 (UTC) HEY K! HEY K! How ya doin'. I just notice you were here and decided to drop by! I loooove Eragon too (though I am still reading book 1). Godsrule - Talk to me! 13:03, December 4, 2012 (UTC) :Well good to know you're back. Are you coming back to A-wik? PBL is dying... Godsrule - Talk to me! 20:43, January 16, 2013 (UTC) Invitation to Dragon wisdom wiki Hey Specialk16, I just wanted to invite you to my wiki Dragonwisdom. Feel free to edit or add to any information on the wiki that might need editing. P.S. I think you'll like this page. Link1995 (talk) 03:55, December 13, 2012 (UTC) RE: Re Return I am very sorry to hear that you have suffered through that much Goodkind, alas, I don't have your patience. Special edition? I won't spoil anything by referring you to the page on Tenga or anything like that... Anyway, here's some fantasy you might enjoy more: *''The Adventures of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser: A series of swords and sorcery adventures starring northern barbarian Fafhrd and former wizard's apprentice the Gray Mouser. They have a seven book series, consisting mostly of collections, detailing their adventures in the exotic world of Newhon and the city of Lankhmar. They are unusually humane for hired rogues and their stories are frequently comic, though Leiber manages the darker moments skillfully. Several prequel stories are found in ''Swords and Deviltry but they don't actually meet each other until the end of that book, in the novella Ill Met in Lankhmar. *''Dying Earth: A series of four very far-future fantasies in an exotic landscape of magic and faded grandeur. The first book, ''The Dying Earth, sets a pattern for the other three: there isn't a novel-length plot but rather a series of six interlinked episodes, sharing locations and characters. Taken collectively, there is a kind of overarching story that reveals itself (the stories aren't in chronological order). *''The Broken Sword: Ok, this is fairly grim but it has ''haunted me since I read it. It's a Nordic high fantasy, with elves, trolls and magic swords that has the advantage of having an author both versed in the original sagas and prepared to follow the story through to its bleak conclusion. If you want something a little lighter, Three Hearts and Three Lions and Operation Chaos are also good.--Wyvern Rex. (talk) 10:12, January 16, 2013 (UTC) :A note on The Broken Sword: Anderson rewrote it for the 1971 reprint, weakening the effect somewhat. All post-2001 editions restore the original text and should be preferred, though the 1971 edition is still a decent introduction. This essay provides a further explanation of the difference. The reason there are no sequels relates somewhat to the distinct finality of the ending for several characters. If you have the time, tell me what you think of this story.--Wyvern Rex. (talk) 09:37, January 17, 2013 (UTC) ::Yes, finish the Chainfire books to get it out of your life. All his later books are set in an "alternate universe" anyway, so they aren't important to the main story. I'm presently having my read through of Larry Niven's Tales of Known Space. I read Ringworld years ago but hadn't been back since except when I read "The Warriors" and "The Jigsaw Man" in anthologies. Now I'm finally reading classic short stories such as "The Borderlands of Sol", "The Organleggers", "Neutron Star", "The Ethics of Madness" etc. The novel Protector is coming up next. ::Also of interest is Lois Bujold's stories of Miles Vorkosigan, a series of space operas that range from the traditional adventure stories (The Warrior's Apprentice), stories of political intrigue (Brothers in Arms), romance (A Civil Campaign) and some more reflective, character-driven stories (Memory). The new one, Captain Vorpatril's Alliance, should be coming out fairly soon. Anyway, enjoy The Broken Sword, so here's Poul Anderson talking about his approach to creating realistic high fantasy settings, in "On Thud and Blunder". Probably written in the 70's, it's a useful guide to creating a world and elucidates several aspects of the background research that went into forging The Broken Sword.--Wyvern Rex. (talk) 10:10, January 18, 2013 (UTC) ::I'm going to need some assistance. When I attempt to edit a page, the "Loading Editor" message does not disappear, rendering page editing functionally impossible. This seems to apply to me on all wikis. Could you get technical support?--Wyvern Rex. (talk) 12:07, January 19, 2013 (UTC) I've got things working on another computer. Books to follow.--Wyvern Rex. (talk) 12:12, January 19, 2013 (UTC) I think I might have solved it. Probably a corrupted cookie cache. I've got a few suggestions, though there's quite a few standalone novels and collections in there as well. Anyway, in list form: *Robert E. Howard (Conan) *Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore (various) *Clark Ashton Smith (numerous short fiction cycles) *Lord Dunsany (mostly short fiction) *Manly Wade Wellman (the "John the Balladeer" stories and others) *Leigh Brackett (the Eric John Stark stories) *L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt (The Complete Compleat Enchanter) *Jack Vance (The Dying Earth and Lyonesse) *Ray Bradbury (the Green Town stories) *Fritz Leiber (Lankhmar) *Michael Moorcock (Elric) *Roger Zelazny (The Chronicles of Amber) *Terry Brooks (Shannara) *Raymond E. Feist (Riftwar) *Walter Jon Williams (Metropolitan) *Neil Gaiman (American Gods) *Patrick Rothfuss (The Kingkiller Chronicles) *China Miéville (Un Lun Dun and Looking for Jake) *Matt Hughes (Archonate) PS: certain individuals may suggest that you try Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time. You might like it but I have found these reviews scarily accurate.--Wyvern Rex. (talk) 13:18, January 19, 2013 (UTC) :The problem with Pratchett is that the overarching mythology of the Disc grew very rapidly out of control and though it's the first book, The Colour of Magic is very much in media res. For you, I advise starting with Mort as it's the first one that takes the time to properly explain things. The good thing about Riftwar and Shannara is that you can easily get through a short trilogy at a time. They're light and fun, mostly.--Wyvern Rex. (talk) 20:20, January 19, 2013 (UTC) ::OK, here's some tips: ::*''Riftwar'': The main story runs Riftwar Saga, Krondor's Sons, Serpentwar Saga, Conclave of Shadows, Darkwar Saga, Demonwar Saga and Chaoswar Saga. The short stories, Legends of the Riftwar and Riftwar Legacy are sidestories to the main plot and can be read afterwards or slotted in before Krondor's Sons. The Empire books don't quite fit the overarching narrative as they retell the story of the first Riftwar from the point of view of the other side. I would advocate reading the Empire books directly after A Darkness at Sethanon. (Faerie Tale is not part of the Riftwar and is fairly unreadable, so avoid it.) For reference, Feist's website is here and an online atlas to the worlds of Feist is here. ::*The reading order for Terry Brooks is slightly less important: It is advised that you read them in the order Shannara trilogy, Heritage, First King, Word & Void, Voyage, High Druid, Genesis, Legends and Dark Legacy but equally you could read Shannara, Heritage, First King, Word & Void, Genesis, Legends, Voyage, High Druid and Dark Legacy without missing anything significant. There's also a graphic novel, Dark Wraith of Shannara, set just after the first trilogy and four short stories: "Indomitable" (Legends II, after the first trilogy), the two, soon to be three "Paladins" stories (prequels available direct from Amazon as ebooks) and "The Shade of Allanon" (Unfettered, between Shannara and Heritage). ::*Anyway, here's his website and here's a slightly out-of-date fansite with scans of the maps (not all the books have them in and the ones that do can often be lower quality than these). Also, if you're reading some Stephen King, have a look out for these. Have you read The Wind Through the Keyhole yet? It might actually have drifted towards being my favorite of the series as it both works by itself and I believe it was the first one where King employed the services of an editor.--Wyvern Rex. (talk) 11:40, January 20, 2013 (UTC) :::May I make a suggestion? I would read them in the order The Broken Sword, Mort, The Wind Through the Keyhole, The Sword of Shannara and Magician. There is balance there between darkness and levity. The Pratchett in particular will take away the taste of ashes from the end of the Anderson.--Wyvern Rex. (talk) 10:35, January 21, 2013 (UTC) ::::Not long now then. I'm trying to extract blood from the stone that is Paolini's latest Lytherus interview. I'm still reading and there's been one answer that wasn't "no comment".--Wyvern Rex. (talk) 10:36, January 26, 2013 (UTC) :::::Not too much, hints that Book 5 will feature Angela, a couple of continuity confirmations etc. (sorry about the late reply, I got distracted by some William Gibson)--Wyvern Rex. (talk) 15:41, January 30, 2013 (UTC) ::::::You might notice that we are now part of the reinvingorated Fantasy Fellowship.--Wyvern Rex. (talk) 20:45, February 1, 2013 (UTC) :::::::We joined when it was set up for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey but since then, they converted it to a general multi-wiki alliance (of the sort I tried to establish on several prior occasions). There are equivalents for science fiction and super heroes as well. Also, you've finished Goodkind! And you seem mentally unscarred! :::::::One thing I've quite enjoyed recently is the Science Fiction Megapack ebook series put out by Wildside Press. There's a lot of Astounding-style Hard SF, a bit of Planet Stories space opera and some Galaxy''esque satire. Good stories by Isaac Asimov, Alfred Bester, Fredric Brown, Philip K. Dick, Cyril M. Kornbluth, Robert Silverberg, E. C. Tubb and many others appear throughout the series run (presently five volumes with around 25 stories in each, priced at around $0.99 each). There are other titles and genres available, including westerns, steampunk, adventure stories, horror, mysteries, war stories, Lovecraft and a theme volume of completely ridiculous pulp stories I had to restrain myself from buying ("THE SCALPEL OF DOOM", "SATAN DRIVES THE BUS", "WHEN SUPER-APES PLOT", "THE TERRIBLE TENTACLES OF L-472", "THE FLOATING ISLAND OF MADNESS", honestly, I could go on but I probably shouldn't). :::::::I've also come to grips with the work of James P. Hogan, who when he was good was very good but when he was bad was so very bad indeed. (I didn't read him for years after ''The Multiplex Man but Inherit the Stars and a couple of others have got that classic sense of wonder to them) So, what's next for you?--Wyvern Rex. (talk) 12:41, February 11, 2013 (UTC) ::::::::OK, I'm presently reading the work of James Thurber, some of which could, I suppose, be seen as fantasy. He is particularly well known for his mastery of comic short fiction, often accompanied by various drawings and cartoons. The Thurber hero is, I think, someone that everyone can identify with to some extent; continually frustrated by the vagaries of existence but retaining enough good humor to enjoy life in full. One of his best is the semi-autobiographical "The Night the Bed Fell", a story about a minor incident, which, with the aid of a large cast of endearingly daft relatives, gets quite out of hand. All I can say is, everyone has experienced a situation like this at least once.--Wyvern Rex. (talk) 11:01, February 15, 2013 (UTC)